However there was a drop month on month, with 419 operations cancelled in November last year.

Health Minister Simon Burns said: "The number of cancelled urgent operations remains very low compared to the total number of operations carried out in the NHS — approximately 0.05 per cent and has reduced slightly on last month.

"The NHS must continue to do everything it can to ensure operations are not cancelled and when they are that patients are offered treatment as soon as possible.”

A source said just six trusts were responsible for a third of all urgent operations cancelled in December 2011.

Local difficulties such as over-running operations due to complications and prioritising emergency cases had pushed up the number of urgent cases cancelled in those trusts, it is understood.

Dozens of operations have been cancelled due to a shortage of beds after an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug.

Five wards have been closed down at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, forcing doctors to postpone 37 operations.

Hospital bosses yesterday (Fri) admitted they are under "intense pressure", but hope to work with other health agencies to fast-track patients to free up beds.

A spokesman for Cambridge University Hospitals said: "We are currently facing intense pressure due to a number of factors, including delayed transfers of care, increasing demand for beds and norovirus."

The first ward was closed on January 20 in a bid to stop the norovirus spreading, but the bug spread forcing bosses to shut five wards and three bays